Collaborative Robot Education Through Train-The-Trainer Workshops: Analysis and Assessment

In this work, we present an analysis of the results of the evaluation of a project that aims at increasing knowledge of industrial robotics in general, and collaborative robots in particular, among STEM educators. The analysis includes evaluations conducted on six train-the-trainer workshops on intelligent industrial robotics that were organized over a span of four years from 2021 to 2024. The workshops targeted STEM faculty of community and technical colleges and high schools. Evaluations were conducted by an independent evaluator. The overall assessment shows that evaluations were successful in capturing the effectiveness of the workshops. The main challenges in capturing effectiveness of workshops include the low response rate of workshop attendees for follow-up surveys, and the discrepancy in answers to demographic questions for pre- and post-intervention surveys that may result from various reasons. The workshops included factory tours, industry speakers, and hands-on activities on industrial robot and vision system programming. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the workshops was measured using surveys at the end of the workshops, pre-and post-intervention assessments, and six-month follow up surveys.